Hands-on with the new HTC Flyer

Today at Mobile World Congress 2011, HTC announced their first Android tablet called HTC Flyer. When I showed up at the HTC stand in Hall 1, I was kind of disappointed that I found the HTC Flyer behind glass, so I was unable to take any pictures of it close by. Later today I had a session together with several members of the dutch press with Mark Moons, Regional Director HTC Benelux, who showed us the new HTC Incredible S, HTC Desire S and Wildfire S. After that we all hoped for the new two Facebook phones ChaCha and Salsa and the HTC Flyer. Sadly Mark didn’t bring them, so apart from a brief introduction and a Q and A on both products, we left the building (where this morning’s press conference took place). Luck was on our side when we discovered inside the building some HTC people and one of them had both the HTC Flyer and the Facebook phones there.

To conclude this, we got the extended tour with the HTC Flyer and managed to take some pictures of it too. The circumstances were not ideal because of the bad lighting but I think the photos turned out quite well. Let’s have a look !

This picture show the Flyer in it’s full glory. You can see how the capacitive buttons on the bottom rotate when you turn the device. The buttons are now on the bottom in landscape mode, but in the picture below, you’ll see them on the bottom in portrait mode. At the top you’ll also notice the front camera.

In this picture you can also see Scribe in action in the application Scribble. When you tap with your pen on the screen, a screenshot is made and you can start writing on the screen. The pen indicator turns from red to green indicating the writing-mode. When you are done and saved or shared your document, the indicator returns to red again. More pictures on the indicator below:

One of the other things demonstrated was the use of the front camera. You can use it to create special effects to your picture. If you ever wanted a pixelated face, you need the app Snapbooth on a Flyer for that !

After the demonstration where we got an overview of all the apps which make the Flyer unique like Scribe, HTC Watch and apps for reading E-books, listening to music and all the other additions when you use the Sense interface. After this I could some pictures of the Flyer to compare it in size or show of it’s design aspects.

Only for a size comparison: This is the HTC Desire HD with it’s 4.3 inch screen next to the Flyer.

The back of the HTC Flyer where you can clearly see the camera, stereo loudspeakers and on the top right corner the 3,5 mm headphone jack and power button. You can also see the Unibody design here.

Here you can see the bottom where you can insert the charging cable and also the cable which enables you to connect it to any HDMI device.

This picture is a bit unsharp and it shows you the top of the Flyer. Power button and headphone jack.

I tried to capture the curves at the side of the device here. It is not clearly visible but there is a small curve on both sides, just to give you a little bit more grip when holding it on both sides. Reminds me of the G1 and Legend who also had a curve at the bottom of the device. Picture below shows the other side.

What I wanted to find out too, was if I can hold the Flyer comfortably with one hand and in fact, Yes I can ! Could be the ideal device for me…

Some more information: The pen will be included and a case which holds the Flyer and the pen will be there too when you one.
Suggested retailprice may be 699 euro incl VAT for the 32GB version with 3G. Maybe there will be other versions with Wifi and no 3G and/or smaller memory amounts but I guess we’ll have to wait for May to find that out.